This blog is about being an assemblage artist living in Vancouver, BC. I use it to showcase my art, techniques, events and my travels.

Thursday, July 26, 2012

ART and BOATS

Well we are still in love with Amsterdam.....

This is some serious beer delivery.....

Went to modern art gallery....

Lot of work but I am not sure?

Close up of Carnival scene (below)

All sewn and beaded...unbelievable....artist's father was a carny and artist worked on the backdrops

Two story light sculpture

Crazy film that changes colour

The flowers are in bloom everywhere so we went to the Bible Museum to see the "Blooms" show...

Outside our apartment

Famous flower painter in the Bible Museum

Bible Museum staircase

Woman drawer of plants...fabulous

Same flower painter

We took a train trip to Lelystad to see where the 17th century replica ship was built.....There is public art there as well....

Giant metal sculpture called Crouching Man

Giant head with man on top

While there we got to go sailing on a square rigger tall ship....not a whole lot of wind but nice to be out on the lake (which by the way was ocean at one time and Lelystad itself is reclaimed land)....

Boat called the Bounty

Our skipper Alex being the deckhand

Our skipper...note the shoes!

Me setting the foresail.

Arnt hoisting sail

Arnt relaxing with cigar and beer

View of the sails

salon

bar

We then went to see the Batavia which sunk off Australia. When the Austrailians found the stern section a Dutchman, Willem Vos decided to build a replica. His idea was to buid in the old way and teach the youth skills such as black smithing, wood working, sail making, rope making, etc. He fundraised for 10 years and the boat took 10 years to build. It has sailed but now they want to put it on land...less maintenance.

Batavia is about 150' long, spice ship that had a crew of 330.

This is the scaffolding in the shipyard that the boats are constructed in

This is the Danish Oak that the boats are made of

This 120 foot slab had to be steam bent and clamped to get that curve

You can see by the size of this deadeye the size of the rigging they had to reproduce

Their blacksmithing shop....cool knot!

Arnt found the beer kegs in the hold!

Here are two other boats that were made there and they are also making another large ship....

Sweet typical Dutch Boyer

A tender for Batavia

On another trip we went to a temporary museum all about recycled materials. You paid 2E or three empty plastic bottles to get in.....

Garbage looking good

He wants!

Nice dog...low maintenance

This could be the dog walker

I want this desk!

Floor sculpture made out of plastic cups and utensils

This large photo of flowers is all constructed out of plastic forks, spoons, etc.

Close up of the plastic utensils

I want this storage unit to go with the desk.

Wind knitting machine

You can buy the scarves it makes at the museum

Here is some of the architecture in the country side. We mostly try to ride on the dikes....

local store

farmhouse

wood house on the dike

Brick house on a small canal

Our favourite restaurant on the dike in Durgerdam

Boat shed in Durgerdam with launching rails

Cranes all around

Farmer with a sense of humour

We just love this tower coming out of the water

Dike riding along the Ij

Dike into Durgerdam

Church tower in Ransdorp...they think they might have run out of money for the steeple

Farmland all around the tower. Arnt's fav tower so far and we have been up a lot of them.

This is most of the tiny town of Ransdorp and the view from the tower

This is our bike path from Ransdorp to Rina and Rop's Garden

Rina's hollyhocks

Glass sculpture with metal sculpture in the background in tiny town of Zunderdorp

Metal sculpture in Zunderdorp

Schellingwouderbreek (large lake in park)

biking home through the park

We had a boat launch today....Arnt bought a hull at the flea market and then proceeded to rig it. He bought dowel and sanded it down, made the sails and the cabin rails. All this with very few tools. We found a shop that sold tiny chocks and deadeyes. He made his own cleats, flag and self steering gear. The name is Noord. We biked it up to a park that had a shallow pool to sail it. Had to take the top sail off as it was too much sail aloft. It then did very well in the light winds.

This is how it looked when he got it and he made a stand out of copper wire

Homemade box to take boat to Westerpark

Noord sails

Looking pretty

That is all for now....we have a few adventures planned. Going north to stay in an old farmhouse near the sea, checking out the Group of Seven show while we are up there. On the outskirts of Amsterdam is a show in a parking garage tower with 55 artists, dj's on the roof and food and drinks. We also need to go to the sea...thinking of taking the fast ferry which also takes our bikes....so much to do....now that the summer is here we are taking a vacation so have time for all of this. When I told Arnt we were on vacation for a couple weeks he just started laughing....what is so funny???

About Me

I have been an artist for over 20 years. As I travel in different countries, including my own, I find I need to create art to continue my experience and memories of those places. My assemblage pieces consist of found objects combined with my photographs and treasures collected during my travels. Once in the studio I take from my myriad of labeled boxes an object that I want to start with and combine it with other objects, text, photographs usually constructed in a found box to tell the story.